Construction of sub-ceilings



J 9 HANS-JULIUS SCHMITT 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 8, 1965 ATTORNEYS Jam 9, 1968 HANS-JULIUS SCHMITT 3,362,122

CONSTRUCTION OF SUB-CEILINGS Filed March 8, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 I NVENTOR: HA /v3 c/u/ms SCHM/Tf M] W W ATTORNEVQ United States Patent CONSTRUCTION OF SUB-CEILINGS Hans-Julius Schmitt, 3 Lichtenbergstrasse,

Frankfurt am Main, Germany Filed Mar. 8, 1965, Ser. No. 437,706 Claims priority, application Germany, Mar. 10, 1964, Sch 34,774 3 Claims. (01. 52484) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE More particularly, the invention relates to the method of forming a sub-ceiling and the structure involved therein comprising, alternate rows of flanged support panels and flanged cladding panels, the support panels are arranged in reinforced units of two or more, attached to hangers extending downwardly from the ceiling. The cladding panels are secured between and to the flanges of the support panels. The securing means comprise spring metal clips with tapered ends which pass through aligned openings in adjacent face contacting flanges and lock the cladding panels to the sides of the suspended support panels.

The invention relates to the construction of sub-ceilings, i.e., ceiling liners for rooms, halls and the like.

Methods are already known for making sub-ceilings from prefabricated panels or sheets of wood, plaster, metal or plastics, the individual sheets or panels being attached to a special substructure or framework suspended from the ceiling structure to form an independent supporting structure. The panels are thereby indirectly suspended from the ceiling structure. It is also known for the individual panels or sheets to be suspended directly from the ceiling structure by hangers and to interconnect the panels. In this case, therefore, the panels are individually suspended directly from the ceiling structure.

These known methods give rise to material and labor costs which would be avoided by my invention.

In the case of indirect suspension it is indispensible for the supporting structure in the form of laths, profiled rails, tubular frames or the like to be mounted on the ceiling structure of the building, to which the individual panels are then attached. For this purpose the individual panels are applied to the supporting structure such as by screwing. When the thin-walled sheets of metal are used as the panels, the sides thereof are clamped into specially designed metal sections of the supporting structure.

For reasons of economy the laths, profiled rails and/or tubes needed to form the various supporting structures must be from five to eight metres long, which is a hindrance to transportation and to handling on the site. The flexibility possessed by such lengths makes it necessary to fit additional stiflcners, which is the only way of adapting the supporting structures to receive the individual panels or sheets. The required lengths and the stiffeners also prove a hindrance when dismantling the assembly.

When lining panels are suspended directly from the ceiling structure, the expensive supporting structure is dispensed with, but high assembly costs arise from the fact that the panels at attached individually, thus requiring a plurality of fixing points which, in turn, make it diflicult to adjust the assembly in a horizontal position and appreciably hinder the dismantling of parts thereof.

However, ease in dismantling is of considerable economic importance since the building industry strives to accommodate all service conduits such as light and power lines, signalling equipment, gas and water pipes, drainage, and supplies of fresh air and heated air in the ceiling cavity, i.e., through the space formed between the assembled sub-ceiling and the ceiling structure.

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In order that the service conduits may 'be inspected and repaired it must be possible to open and re-close the subceilings at any position by removing individual or several sheets or panels and this must be possible rapidly and simply without special tools. Experience shows that the desired ease and simplicity in dismantling is not obtained with the above-mentioned constructions because the panels attached to the ceiling structure or to the supporting structure become jammed under lateral pressure and/or the efiects of corrosion. Another disadvantage of the known ceiling liners is that the individual panels may of themselves work loose from the sub-structure and drop out if the building undergoes settlement or movement such as caused by external vibrations.

According to the invention, the sub-ceiling comprises supporting units and cladding units. The supporting units are assembled from a plurality of panels and are suspended from the ceiling structure so as to leave gaps which are subsequently covered by the cladding units. It is desirable for the supporting units to be formed by joining two or more panels into a rigid assembly by connecting bars. The connecting bars can comprise flat strips of sheet metal with perforations to receive countersinkable fastening rivets and they contain notches which are engaged over adjacent flanges on the panels. The supporting units are preferably provided near the corners with connecting devices or, the lower portions of which are recessed at both sides to accommodate the flanges on the supporting unit when the latter is hanging vertically during assembly. For this pur pose the flanges are preferably also recessed at the corners. The cladding units may be fixed to the supporting units by spring hinges. These springs can comprise a curved strip of sheet metal with one end bent to U-shape and containing a hole and the other end terminating in a tongue. The U-shaped end is attached to the inside of a flange on the cladding unit by rivets or the like and in such a way that the tongue passes through to the outside through a hole in the flange.

By means of the invention, special supporting structure or a large number of fixing points are avoided, since some of the panels are combined, before attachment to the ceiling structure, to form supporting units of relatively large area. These assembled units are then suspended in rows from only a few points on the ceiling structure and gaps are left between the rows, the gaps being covered with separate cladding panels or with cladding panels assembled into units of large area.

The supporting unit is attached to the ceiling structure by the connecting device and wire rods and/or slotted band iron; the connecting device is used for accurate adjustment of the level of suspension, i.e., the spacing between the sub-ceiling and the ceiling structure and also to join juxtaposed supporting units.

The turnbuckle has an adjusting screw for the wire rod and/ or slotted band iron at the top to adjust the level and securing means at the bottom to join the adjacent units.

The cladding unit is attached to the supporting units by screws or the aforementioned horizontally movable spring hinges. Whenthe cladding unit is installed, the projecting tongue acts as a support in a corresponding aperture in the flange of the adjacent panel of the supporting unit. If the spring is flexed back, the cladding unit is released and swings down in the manner of a flap without dropping out When the panel is pushed back into position to reclose the gap in the ceiling the spring hinge snaps back.

The invention will now be described with reference to the example illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a supporting unit made up of three panels;

FIG. 2 shows a strip of sheet metal for the supporting units;

FIG. 3 shows in perspective some of the supporting and cladding units in the final position and in a hanging position;

FIG. 4 illustrates part of two adjacent supporting units joined by a connecting device with a wire for attachment to the ceiling structure;

FIG. 5 is a similar view but with one of the supporting units still in a hanging position;

FIG. 6 illustrates a spring hinge;

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the connection provided by the spring hinge between a cladding unit and a supporting unit;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the same connection with the cladding unit in a hanging position.

As can be seen from FIG. 3, the sub-ceiling 1 is formed by supporting units 2 and cladding units 3. In FIG. 1 the supporting unit comprises three flanged panels 4, while in FIG. 3 each said unit is made up of two panels.

The panels 4 are joined to form the supporting unit 2 by a strip 5 as illustrated in FIG. 2. This strip of sheet metal contains slots or notches 6 and holes 7. The slots 6 are placed over the adjacent flanges 8 of the adjoining panels 4, and the holes 7 correspond to holes 9 in the flanges 10 of the panels 4. In order to obtain a rigid unit, the strips of sheet metal 5 are joined to the panels 4, for example by rivets passing through the holes 7, 9.

The supporting units 2 are then suspended from the ceiling structure 13 by means of connecting devices 11 and hanging wires 12.

As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the adjacent panels 4 of two supporting units are interconnected by the connecting devices 11 by means of a screw 14 which is applied to the lower region of the connecting devices 11 and which pass through openings 9a. In FIG. 4 the two supporting units are in their final horizontal position. FIG. 5 shows them during assembly, that is to say, one of the supporting units is already in the final position but the other is still in the hanging position. Corner recesses 15 in the flanges then fit into recesses 16 in the connecting devices 11.

When the supporting units have been suspended from the ceiling structure, the cladding units, in this case single panels 3, are then inserted in the gaps 17. This is done by means of the spring hinges 18 shown in FIG. 6. The spring comprises a U-shaped portion 19 with a slot 20 and a bent end 21 terminating in a tongue 22. As illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8, the hinge 18 is fixed to the flange 24 of the cladding panel 3 by a rivet 23. The tongue 22 of the hinge passes through the hole 25 in the cladding panel 3. When the cladding panel is to be joined to the supporting unit, i.e., placed in the gap 17, the free end of the spring 18 is first flexed back far enough to bring the tongue 22 of the hinge out of the way of the panel 4 of the supporting unit. Once the cladding panel 3 has been positioned, the spring 18 is released, so that the tongue 22 of the hinge snaps into the perforation 26 in the panel of the supporting unit under its own resilience and thereby establishes the desired releasable connection.

I claim:

1. A sub-ceiling for a ceiling structure comprising alternate rows of support panels and cladding panels, each of said panels being rectangular and having upstanding flanges along each of its four sides, means securing the adjacent flanges of at least three support panels together to form a support unit, said means securing said adjacent support panels comprising two metal strips extending longitudinally of the unit along the inner sides of the upstanding flanges and secured thereto and bridging the joints between adjacent panels, vertically extending connecting devices positioned at the ends only of said units for supporting said units from said ceiling, said connecting devices also securing the ends of adjacent units together to form a row, a spring hinge having a U-shaped end attached to the inside of a flange on the cladding panel and a tongue passing through a hole in said last named flange to the outside for engagement in a hole in the supporting unit and thereby pivotally connecting the cladding panels between and to adjacent flanges of adjacent rows of sup port units for vertical swinging movement to form a row of cladding panels therebetween.

2. A sub-ceiling according to claim 1, wherein the strips of sheet metal are flat and have perforations therein to receive countersinkable fastening rivets, and notches therein to fit over transversely extending flanges of the panels in the unit.

3. A sub-ceiling according to claim 1, wherein the vertically extending connecting devices include turnbuckles, the lower portions of which are recessed on both sides to accommodate the flanges of the supporting unit where the latter is hanging vertically.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,997,595 4/1935 Nold 52-484 2,648,102 8/1953 Jacobson 52-144 2,698,071 12/1954 Lee 52-484 2,710,175 6/1955 Iorn 52-484 3,121,259 2/1964 Versen 52-484 X 3,189,138 6/1965 Znamirowski 52-484 X FOREIGN PATENTS 1,227,659 1960- France. 1,252,366 12/ 1960 France.

941,911 1963 Great Britain.

HENRY C. SUTI-IERLAND, Primary Examiner.

R. A. STENZEL, G. W. HORNADAY,

Assistant Examiners. 

